NCLB

When Sen. Kay Hagan voted against the DREAM Act in December, she joined with only a handful of other Democrats in handing President Barack Obama his sole setback of a very productive lame-duck session. To educators like myself, Hagan's opposition to the act is indefensible. However, she can redeem herself and regain our support by following through on her own rhetoric.

Hagan said that she would not support the DREAM Act as a stand-alone bill, and that she would prefer a comprehensive overhaul of the immigration system. Now, she should become one of the leading Democratic voices for immigration reform and ensure that a comprehensive bill includes DREAM Act-like provisions.

Our children are headed back to class today in many North Carolina schools as well as around the nation. Truth be told, I wish I could be there for my students today, but the reality is I’m running for Congress for each and every one of them as much as I am my own girls. The future of our children is too important a responsibility to postpone, and sadly I believe far too many of our leaders have neglected their duty.

There is no greater urgency or cause. We can lose a generation if we don’t act now. All of us – parents, teachers, schools, Churches, commissioners and Congress – have an obligation to our children and a role to play.

When did it become acceptable for Americans to allow

Torture? Yesterday, after congress failed to override a presidential veto of a bill outlwaing "Torture". The president referred to "Torture" as a valuable tool in America's ability to fight terrorism. Now it is absolutely our national policy.

Rendition; Where was the outrage?

When we all learned about the Secret prisons, where we took people to be tortured and that our President and Vice President had approved them; Why was our President not impeached?

As I told News 14 this week at the July 4th celebration in Harrisburg, the reason we continue to work so hard is that the issues that were so important to our supporters are still there. We know where Robin Hayes stands believing we need him, more than he needs us. We can't let his feet from the fire for one minute as votes impacting our nation continue to be decided by those in Washington.

One subject in particular, you know to be near and dear to me as I've blogged on it often, is revising http://bluenc.com/no-child-voter-worker-or-district-left-behind ">No Child Left Behind.

Friends, I have so much to share and so little time to do so, I thought I'd just pop in during my break and post an update on the the little campaign that could, thanks in no small part to BlueNC.

If you know anything about my 2006 campaign, you know we broke the mold, broke the rules, made our own support, and just about won in spite of all the odds.

So knowing me and the fact that I'm a school teacher now after 27 years in textiles, you shouldn't be surprised that when the DCCC invited me to DC this week to meet with them about 2008 I had to speak my mind, and I did.